Traditionally, jukeboxes were large machines containing a collection of vinyl records or compact discs (CD's) and a record player or CD player to play songs selected by users. Jukeboxes using CD's or vinyl records to store songs were limited in the number of songs that they could provide to users by the number of CD's or vinyl records that could physically fit inside the jukebox. Consequently, the number of songs that could be stored in the jukebox was relatively small and was limited to the newest and most popular music available. Accordingly, the music selection menu, which contains the list of music that may be selected for play by a user, was also relatively small and could be easily navigated by a user to quickly find the newest and most popular music.
The development of computer jukeboxes greatly increased the number of songs that could be stored in a jukebox. A computer jukebox stores entertainment content, such as songs, videos, and other forms of entertainment in digital format on a digital memory. The digital memory can be much smaller, physically, than a collection of CD's or records and can contain thousands of songs. Computer jukeboxes may therefore be located in a wide variety of public and private locations. Furthermore, computer jukeboxes are not limited to playing music, but may play songs, videos, and other forms of entertainment (“entertainment content”). As used herein, the term “song,” “music,” “album,” or “video” also refers generally to entertainment content. Essentially, any computer system capable of playing entertainment content on demand or in any automated fashion is a computer jukebox.
The dramatic increase in the number of songs that may be stored in the digital memory of a computer jukebox allows for a wide variety of music to be stored. In addition to the newest and most popular songs, computer jukeboxes may also store less popular songs, older songs, and even obscure songs that may rarely be selected for play. Additionally, computer jukeboxes may be connected to a network so that music stored at a data center may also be available to be selected for play by a user. A data center may be located remotely from the computer jukebox and may provide music to a network of computer jukeboxes. A data center may use more sophisticated computers (i.e., computers with more memory, greater storage capacity, higher capacity processing chip). Therefore, because they are less constrained by cost and physical space than an individual computer jukebox, a data center may contain hundreds of thousands of songs that may be available for selection by a user of an individual computer jukebox.
While it is generally considered desirable to have a large number of songs available for selection by a user, many of the songs available for selection will be of little or no interest to a particular user or less popular, and therefore, may be less desirable songs. The large number of less desirable songs may cause the music selection menu to become cluttered and may prevent a user from quickly and easily finding the most desirable, newest, or most popular music to select for play.
What is needed is a way for a user to more easily search a music database using a computer jukebox.